e
Omega's Olympic Electronic Starting Pistol Redesign
This won't work.This won't work.
This will.This will.
If you visited a baseball stadium as a child*, that's probably the first time you could observe that sound travels slower than light: You see the batter hit the ball, but you don't hear the CRACK until half a second later.
That half a second is a problem for Olympic runners, where every millisecond counts. When a starting pistol is used to start a race, the runner closest to the gun has a slight advantage over the athlete furthest away. To combat this, Olympic timing sponsor Omega created an electronic starting pistol that makes no noise at all, but is instead wired to speakers directly behind each runner.
Previously Omega had tried wiring a regular starting pistol (pictured up top) to speakers, but it didn't work; runners would instinctively only respond to the sound of the real gun, not the speaker-borne sound emitted a millisecond earlier. The new gun, which only sounds through the speakers, solves that problem.
The electronic gun is actually not new—it first saw service at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics—but it has now become the standard.
*Speaking of standards, or lack thereof: To our non-U.S. readers for whom the baseball stadium situation doesn't apply, what was the first instance you can recall where you could observe the speed-of-sound phenomenon? (I'm guessing that say, soccer matches don't produce the same sharp noise as a bat on a ball.)
via the atlantic
-
oFavorite This
-
Q10Comment
Directory Company Profiles
Core77
Industrial Design
Resources
Industrial Design
Resources
-
Core77 Directory
Find the Best Industrial Design CompaniesGo -
Bould Design
BOULD DESIGN is a strategic partner for bringing highly functional, beautiful and successful product...
-
Astro StudiosAstro Studios of California launched in 1994, and since then our multidisciplinary teams have design...
-
Formation Design Group
Formation is a product design + development company focused on human centered design innovation. To ...
-
4design
4DESIGN | www.4design.com.au | +612 9280 4454 4DESIGN are a team of focussed, talented, motivated a...
-
Mighty Studios
Mighty Studios is a business-savvy product design consultancy. We believe that good design should be...
-
PDR
PDR is a major award-winning, multidisciplinary international centre for design and research with a ...
-
Spitfire Industry
WHO WE ARE Spitfire is a design studio headquartered in Brooklyn. Founded by Isis Shiffer, an award...
K
{Welcome
Create a Core77 Account
Already have an account? Sign In
By creating a Core77 account you confirm that you accept the Terms of Use
K
Reset Password
Please enter your email and we will send an email to reset your password.
Comments
Where electronic and integrated timekeeping is not available, a crew of timekeepers is positioned at the finish line and presses a start button on their stopwatch at the sight of either smoke where the starter is using a pistol with explosive caps or a light in the front of the pistol if something like this omega were eto be used.
There is no visual tradition here, its practical purpose and application.
... not to mention it looks like a price scanner. if you are forcing yourself to pay for a superfluous item for the sake of retaining some sort of visual tradition, at least structure the form factor so that it relates to what has been used before.